Saturday, May 6, 2017

antigen-specific Foxp3+ Tregs maintain tolerance in HLA-linked autoimmunity

This week Nature published new paper that has features of textbook studies. In it the authors showed that in human HLA transgenic mice model of Goodpasture disease [HLA+antigen]-specific Foxp3+ Tregs protected against autoimmune disease development.

Goodpasture disease is an "HLA-linked autoimmune renal disorder characterized by an immunodominant CD4+ T-cells [reactive to] self-epitope derived from the α3 chain of type IV collagen (α3135–145)". In humans presence of HLA-DR15 allele increases disease risk, while presence of HLA-DR1 allele is shown to be dominantly protective in trans with HLA-DR15.

Interestingly enough the authors reported similar pattern of HLA dependency in mouse model of human Goodpasture disease. Here, DR15+ mice were susceptible to disease development. DR1+ mice were resistant to disease development and DR15+DR1+ double-positive mice were healthy except when Tregs were depleted (all mice were on Fcgr2b−/− background, +/- Treg depletion, + immunization with peptide α 3135–145). 



It is not clear how Treg specific for DR1+peptide protects against autoreactive T cells specific for DR15+peptide. It is possible that there is some similarities between these HLA+peptides (cross-reactivity).

David Usharauli




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